[ACHiPo]

Would soffit traps be effective behind a cabinet door?



Background:  I'm in the process of treating my library/den to improve its sound for 2-channel listening.  I've installed a few GIK soffit traps (not shown, but they are in all the top bookshelves) and have 2 Monster Traps that I'm experimenting with in different locations.  I have shallow (8" and 12") cabinets underneath bookshelves, and I'm thinking they could make very nice soffit traps.  While I could always remove the doors and replace them with basically speaker grills, I'm wondering what would happen if I just put ~8" of OC 703 into the cabinets and shut the doors?  Obviously the doors reflect mid and high frequency, but would the bass "see" the rigid insulation?  The doors are not sealed--they just have spring-loaded springs which hold the doors closed.  I could even install some rubber bumpers to hold them open a bit, but not sure if that would help?

Thanks!
Room Treatment Progress

[ACHiPo]

I think I've found the answer to my question, but opinions would be appreciated.

It seems even if I created panel traps, they would be tuned to a specific frequency, and it's very unlikely that the cabinet doors are ideal for the frequency modes in my room.  Looks like I'll need to pull off the doors and replace them with grills.

[Alex Reynolds]

Well, wood in front wouldn't immediately create a panel absorber - it would need to be sealed (but if it were, your above comment of course holds - very doubtful you'd be able to se it right with cabinet wood). In general you probably would get some absorption but you'd get much more if access into the fiber was easier for a sound wave. You want very low resistance at the front of the trap so that sound will be less likely to diffract around it.

[ACHiPo]

Well, wood in front wouldn't immediately create a panel absorber - it would need to be sealed (but if it were, your above comment of course holds - very doubtful you'd be able to se it right with cabinet wood). In general you probably would get some absorption but you'd get much more if access into the fiber was easier for a sound wave. You want very low resistance at the front of the trap so that sound will be less likely to diffract around it.

Thanks Alex!  I'm already figuring out how much "coffee" grill cloth I'll need.  It should be pretty straight forward to copy the cabinet doors and mount them to the existing hinges.

[ACHiPo]

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